- 1
- 2
- next
- | single page
Steven Anthony Jones (Los Angeles Times / August 14, 2009) |
LOS ANGELES -- An auto body repairman was sentenced to death Friday for killing two people during a long string of violence that included murder, torture and rape.
41 year old Steven Anthony Jones apologized to the victims' families before he was sentenced to die for his brutal and bloody rampage.
"I was a monster out there," Jones said.
"From 9 years old, I was on the streets ... All I knew was violence," Jones told the families of Neil Robert Hacker and Sharon Ann Willis, adding that he wished "I could bring their lives back."
"From the bottom of my heart, I apologize to you. You're not hearing from a monster right now. You're hearing from Steven Anthony Jones ...," Jones said.
He was convicted May 28 of first-degree murder for Hacker's November 2004 shooting death during a robbery at Critical Car Care in Quartz Hill and the December 2004 beating death of Sharon Ann Willis in a Lancaster motel room.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy -- who earlier in the court session was told to "shut up" by Jones after she instructed him to be quiet -- said she hoped his apology was sincere.
"Those apologies do not make up for the horrific crimes that you committed," the judge told the defendant, noting that "the violence that you have perpetrated has spanned years and years."
Jones attributed his conduct to drugs and being on the streets at an early age, but the violence has continued since he has been in jail in connection with the murders, the judge said.
"I don't think that you are a changed person. I hope that you are, but I don't think you are," she told Jones.
Kennedy said Hacker was "basically executed" for "the purpose of obtaining a few dollars," and that Willis was attacked with a pick hammer in a "particularly violent crime" in which she apparently suffered greatly in what was not a quick death.
The judge noted that Jones was also convicted of a series of other violent crimes, which included:
-- trying to kill two other men on Dec. 12, 2004, at a Lancaster home where he had rented a room;
-- sexually assaulting a fellow inmate in concert with another prisoner at the Men's Central Jail on June 10, 2005;
-- battering a deputy trying to extract him from his cell following that attack; and
-- torturing and trying to kill another inmate on Dec. 20, 2005.
Hacker's mother, Marla, who lost her only child, told the defendant, "When you chose to take my son's life, you took away my life as I knew it."
She said Jones had also robbed her son of a lifetime of potential with his daughter, who was a year old when her father was slain.
Carrie Lienhart, who wore Hacker's necklace wrapped around her right wrist, told Jones that it has been a "nightmare" and that she will never understand why he took her fiance away from her.
41 year old Steven Anthony Jones apologized to the victims' families before he was sentenced to die for his brutal and bloody rampage.
"I was a monster out there," Jones said.
"From 9 years old, I was on the streets ... All I knew was violence," Jones told the families of Neil Robert Hacker and Sharon Ann Willis, adding that he wished "I could bring their lives back."
"From the bottom of my heart, I apologize to you. You're not hearing from a monster right now. You're hearing from Steven Anthony Jones ...," Jones said.
He was convicted May 28 of first-degree murder for Hacker's November 2004 shooting death during a robbery at Critical Car Care in Quartz Hill and the December 2004 beating death of Sharon Ann Willis in a Lancaster motel room.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy -- who earlier in the court session was told to "shut up" by Jones after she instructed him to be quiet -- said she hoped his apology was sincere.
"Those apologies do not make up for the horrific crimes that you committed," the judge told the defendant, noting that "the violence that you have perpetrated has spanned years and years."
Jones attributed his conduct to drugs and being on the streets at an early age, but the violence has continued since he has been in jail in connection with the murders, the judge said.
"I don't think that you are a changed person. I hope that you are, but I don't think you are," she told Jones.
Kennedy said Hacker was "basically executed" for "the purpose of obtaining a few dollars," and that Willis was attacked with a pick hammer in a "particularly violent crime" in which she apparently suffered greatly in what was not a quick death.
The judge noted that Jones was also convicted of a series of other violent crimes, which included:
-- trying to kill two other men on Dec. 12, 2004, at a Lancaster home where he had rented a room;
-- sexually assaulting a fellow inmate in concert with another prisoner at the Men's Central Jail on June 10, 2005;
-- battering a deputy trying to extract him from his cell following that attack; and
-- torturing and trying to kill another inmate on Dec. 20, 2005.
Hacker's mother, Marla, who lost her only child, told the defendant, "When you chose to take my son's life, you took away my life as I knew it."
She said Jones had also robbed her son of a lifetime of potential with his daughter, who was a year old when her father was slain.
Carrie Lienhart, who wore Hacker's necklace wrapped around her right wrist, told Jones that it has been a "nightmare" and that she will never understand why he took her fiance away from her.
